Davidians

A federal judge convened a sentencing hearing Thursday for eight Branch Davidians, then abruptly called a recess after two defendants said they had never seen reports recommending they get 30-year sentences. Pre-sentence reports, prepared by government officers in federal criminal cases, contain facts about the defendants and the case for use by the judge in deciding punishment. Jurors on Feb. 26 cleared all 11 defendants of murder and murder conspiracy charges. The charges arose from the Feb. 28, 1993, shootout between the Davidians and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents, who raided David Koresh's compound.

In 1827, the first U.S. railroad chartered to carry passengers and freight, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co., was incorporated by the state of Maryland. In 1849, the ship California arrived at San Francisco, carrying the first of the gold-seekers. In 1951, the Senate committee headed by Estes Kefauver, D-Tenn., issued a preliminary report saying at least two major crime syndicates were operating in the U.S. In 1953, scientists James D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick announced they had discovered the double-helix structure of DNA. In 1972, President Nixon and Chinese Premier Chou En-lai issued the Shanghai Communique at the conclusion of Nixon's visit to China.

WACO, Texas -- After an advisory jury decided Friday that the government bears no responsibility for the deaths of some 80 Branch Davidians during the cult's 1993 standoff with federal agents, further action in the case is expected. U.S. District Judge Walter Smith will hear evidence on what has been the most contentious issue, whether federal agents shot at the Davidians at the end of the siege. Smith said he wants to take up the issue Aug. 2 and will make his ruling on all the points later.

In 1932, 20-month-old Charles A. Lindbergh Jr., the son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh, was kidnapped from the family home near Hopewell, N.J. In 1954, Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire from the gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives, wounding five congressmen. In 1961, President Kennedy established the Peace Corps. In 1981, Irish Republican Army member Bobby Sands began a hunger strike at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland; he died 65 days later. In 1993, authorities near Waco, Texas, continued negotiating with Branch Davidians holed up in their bullet-scarred compound, a day after a furious gun battle between the Davidians and federal agents that left 10 people dead.

Bells rang in Waco on Sunday - just as they did in Oklahoma City - to mark the anniversaries of two different, but intertwined tragedies. In Waco, a replica of the Liberty Bell was rung after the reading of the names of the dozens who died on April 19, 1993, when the Branch Davidian compound went up in flames after a botched FBI raid. About 80 Davidians, members of a religious cult led by David Koresh, died after a 51-day siege by government agents in pursuit of a weapons cache.

A lawyer for one of the 11 Branch Davidians charged with murdering four federal agents doesn't want the word ''cult'' uttered in front of the jury. The word has a ''negative and dangerous'' connotation, Mike DeGeurin said in court papers filed Dec. 21. Jury selection is scheduled to begin Jan. 10 in San Antonio, where the trial was moved because of the publicity surrounding the 51-day standoff near Waco between federal agents and David Koresh's disciples....

A newspaper reporter testified on Thursday that cult members fired first during a raid by federal agents on the Branch Davidian compound, undermining the cultists' claim of self-defense. ''Based on what I saw and heard, I believe whoever was inside the building fired first,'' said Marc Masferrer, who was on a nearby road when the 45-minute gun battle began. Four federal agents were killed and 16 wounded. Six Branch Davidians also are believed to have died in the raid. The cult members claim they fired in self-defense when the federal agents began shooting.

A federal judge ordered the murder trial of 11 Branch Davidians moved to San Antonio because of the notoriety of the case in Waco.The cult members are charged in the deaths of four federal agents on Feb. 28 during a weapons raid on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco. Six cult members are believed to have died in the battle. The raid led to a 51-day standoff that ended April 19 with an FBI tank and tear gas assault and a fire in which cult leader David Koresh and as many as 85 followers died.

Surviving Branch Davidians say they don't intend to build a religious retreat in Colorado to replace their Waco complex, which was destroyed by fire after a standoff with federal authorities. Sheila Martin, one of several Davidians living in Waco since the April 19, 1993, fire, said few Davidians are likely to join sect member Wally Kennett in the log cabin he has rented in a virtually deserted old mining town in southwest Colorado. ''Wally mentioned it was possibly a place to go to,'' Martin told the Waco Tribune-Herald.

The federal firearms agency has made reforms throughout since the mistakes of the siege two years ago against the Branch Davidians, senior administration officials told senators Tuesday. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the FBI, still stinging from recent Senate criticism of their conduct in the deadly Ruby Ridge, Idaho, standoff in 1992, are being scrutinized anew for their actions against the Davidians near Waco, Texas. The administration officials heard renewed accusations of the ''militarization'' of civilian law enforcement at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

DALLAS -- A former federal prosecutor who pleaded guilty to withholding information about the Branch Davidian siege could face jail time, despite the government's earlier pledge to recommend probation. The government withdrew the pledge, saying Bill Johnston violated his plea agreement by making statements to a legal journal after his February guilty plea. In the Feb. 19 issue of Texas Lawyer, Johnston was quoted as saying, "They charged me with obstruction of justice and five counts of false statements.

WACO, Texas -- After an advisory jury decided Friday that the government bears no responsibility for the deaths of some 80 Branch Davidians during the cult's 1993 standoff with federal agents, further action in the case is expected. U.S. District Judge Walter Smith will hear evidence on what has been the most contentious issue, whether federal agents shot at the Davidians at the end of the siege. Smith said he wants to take up the issue Aug. 2 and will make his ruling on all the points later.

WACO, Texas -- Jurors in the $675 million Branch Davidian wrongful-death lawsuit heard a 911 recording Wednesday of a panicked sect member saying he was under fire. "I have a right to defend myself! They started shooting first!" Wayne Martin yelled on the tape as gunfire popped in the background on Feb. 28, 1993, when federal agents tried to serve search warrants on the compound, leading to a 51-day siege. Martin's plea to get agents to stop firing also was played at a 1994 criminal trial of five Davidians, but Wednesday was the first time a jury heard the first hour of the tape, capturing the beginning of the deadly raid.

WACO, Texas -- It's been seven years since 80 people died in the fiery conclusion to a standoff between the government and the Branch Davidian religious sect. On June 19, the two sides will confront each other again -- this time in a courtroom. The government is the defendant in a $675 million wrongful death lawsuit, which consolidates nine civil cases filed in 1994 by Branch Davidian family members and survivors. Legal maneuvers by both sides contributed to the delay in bringing the case to trial.

WACO, Texas - U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith Jr. of Waco will hear arguments today on whether the government should be sanctioned for not turning over original evidence to the plaintiffs in the wrongful-death lawsuit filed by surviving Branch Davidians. The plaintiffs also accuse the government of not meeting court-ordered deadlines for turning over evidence. Attorney Mike Caddell of Houston said it's imperative that Smith sanction the government for its actions. Caddell is asking Smith to fine the government $50,000.

Do U.S. Senate Republicans want the truth about the conduct of federal officials in charge during the Branch Davidians showdown in Waco, Texas?Or do they have more interest in exploiting the deaths at Waco for political points?If the Republicans want the truth, they should back off from any action that could interfere with independent special counsel John Danforth's investigation.Mr. Danforth already finds himself competing with Senate Judiciary Committee representatives to interview witnesses.

ON THIS DATE in 1827, the first U.S. railroad chartered to carry passengers and freight, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Co., was incorporated.In 1975, more than 40 people were killed in London's Underground when a subway train smashed into the end of a tunnel.In 1993, a gunbattle erupted at a compound near Waco, Texas, when Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents tried to serve warrants on the Branch Davidians; four agents and six Davidians were killed as a 51-day standoff began.In 1998, President Clinton and Republicans sparred over education, with Clinton describing tests showing American high school students lagging behind those of other industrial nations as a ``wake-up call'' while the Republicans blamed the disappointing results on a ``hungry bureaucracy in Washington.

WACO, Texas - A libertarian talk-show host led a convoy of volunteers with shovels and pickaxes to Waco on Sunday to initiate the rebuilding of the Branch Davidians' compound church. A fire during a government raid six years ago leveled the compound, killing leader David Koresh and 80 followers. Austin talk-show host Alex Jones, 25, said Sunday that he wants to rebuild the church as a memorial and to increase publicity about the FBI's possible role in the fire.

WASHINGTON - The flames of Waco never go away. They burn in the sky of the imagination and darken the lives of those who made a fateful - and I think wrong - decision.Because memories fade, let's recapture the day the Federal Bureau of Investigation ended a 51-day siege by attacking the Branch Davidian compound in an excerpt from the book Why Waco? by James D. Tabor and Eugene Gallagher.``It all ended on Monday, April 19. Just after 6 a.m., two specially equipped M-60 tanks began to strategically punch holes into the Mount Carmel structure and insert CS gas to force the Davidians out. The wind was high, and most of the tear gas blew away.